Open space along the Straits

On a sunny Wednesday evening, two Vizsla owners and four Vizslas took off at the end of the Carquinez Scenic Road. Catherine and I parked our cars, mounted our mountain bikes, and peddled down the closed road with our dogs running along.

Two miles into the ride we came upon a pond and a wide-open pasture bowl.

Here the dogs took a nice cool swim in the pond.


Chloe looked out over the Carquinez Straits after her good ten-minute swim.

The competition for the thrown stick was reason enough for the dogs to swim as fast as they could. Their goal - beat the other dog to the stick.

Bailey, Oliver, and Tony are all great swimmers. The three males are stronger, bigger, and faster than my little female Chloe. Chloe wins the swimming style contest. She has class and looks grand as she cuts through the water.

The late April rains were keeping the hills green and the wild flowers blooming in great patches all over the pastures and slopes.

So we had a nice ride and walk while the dogs got a great 90-minute workout. Conditioning for the Northern California Vizsla Club field trial three days later.

Watching the dogs roaming these fields on a perfect spring evening caused me to call over to Catherine: "This could be an ageless view of the Hungarian plains being covered by red hunting dogs in full flight."

We couldn't have smiled more. A fine evening with good friendship and wonderful dogs.

Tonight ( Monday, May 3rd) was a different training session.

On-leash, Chloe and Bailey first walked to the Main Post Office with me. After dropping off some mail, we headed on downtown. I stopped for a beer thirty minutes later on the porch of Crogan's Bar and Grill, while the dogs got a bowl of water. On an upper-70-degree late afternoon, we then headed home with a brief stop at a local elementary school ground. On the fenced green sports fields, the dogs got to run off-leash for 20 minutes. Then it was the 10-minute walk home.

The city walks that we do along crowded roads and with people on the sidewalks help keep Chloe and Bailey calm with a lot of action going on around them.

A very different training lession than their runs in the wide-open spaces.

We do the city walks about once a week during the late spring and all through the summer. We must have 1000 miles of on-leash city walking behind us.

Every day is a training day for the dogs and me.